From: Jeff Chan
To: tv@kqed.org-nospam, now@thirteen.org-nospam
Date: Tuesday, April 15, 2003, 2:23:44 PM
Subject: The Insider: Gun Industry Lawsuit Overview


KQED: PLEASE PLACE A COPY OF THIS LETTER IN YOUR FCC PUBLIC FILE


Hello KQED and Bill Moyers,
Regarding "The Insider: Gun Industry Lawsuit Overview" which was
broadcast on KQED April 11, 2003 as part of Bill Moyers' NOW
series, putting aside extensive and obvious bias in the coverage
of the issues, the piece's premise that wholesale and retail
firearms dealers have a significant impact on the guns used in
crime is false.  This can be proven by the singular fact that
criminals largely do not acquire guns used in crime through
legitimate channels.  That fact has been proven repeatedly in
scientific research by the United States Department of Justice,
most recently in a report titled "Firearm Use by Offenders"
published November 2001.  This study reconfirmed results
from multiple prison inmate surveys finding that more than
86% of those criminals did not acquire their firearms from a
retail store, pawnshop, gun show or flea market.

  http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov./bjs/abstract/fuo.htm

  Purchased from a retail store     8.3  percent
  Purchased at a pawn shop          3.8
  Purchased at a flea market        1.0
  Purchased in a gun show           0.7
  Obtained from friends or family   39.6
  Got on the street/illegal source  39.2

Therefore efforts to restrict the legal sale of firearms,
which this broadcast piece clearly editorializes support for,
would illegally restrict the constitutional rights of the
law-abiding while leaving criminals' sources of guns largely
unaffected.  Thus "gun control" is not crime control, and it
pragmatically can't be.  Further restrictions on legal gun
purchases or ownership not only infringe constitutionally-
protected rights of the lawful, but they also have little
effect on criminals.  Such restrictions are wrong on both
counts.

This kind of one-sided coverage of an important issue is a
disservice to the community, and I urge the FCC to seriously
consider this kind of biased journalism when KQED's license
comes up for renewal.

Sincerely,

Jeff Chan